Government shutdown: How it will impact federal pay and benefits

The look on this scuplture outside the U.S. Capitol says it all. (RON EDMONDS / AP)

In instructions updated and issued Tuesday evening, the Office of Personnel Management issued updated guidance on how a shutdown of even one day would impact each worker’s bottom line.

You can read the full guidance here, but The Federal Eye read it and summarizes below:

Question: What is a furlough?

Answer: According to OPM’s official guidance, “A furlough is the placing of an employee in a temporary nonduty, nonpay status because of lack of work or funds, or other nondisciplinary reasons.”

Q: What is a shutdown furlough and why is one necessary?

A “shutdown furlough” occurs if federal funding runs out. It’s necessary for agencies that no longer have the funds necessary to keep working.

Q: Who’s an “essential” worker? (NOTE: OPM labels employees who work during a shutdown as “excepted employees”):

It’s people working or may continue to do so by law. “Essential/Excepted” employees include people: (1) performing emergency work involving the safety of human life or the protection of property, (2) performing minimal activities as necessary to execute an orderly suspension of agency operations related to non-excepted activities, or (3) performing certain other types of excepted work.

Top agency lawyers and managers are determining who’s considered “essential” and “non-essential.”

Other workers may be “excepted” from the shutdown furlough if their agency or program is covered by appropriations not impacted by the current budget impasse. (Best examples of that are the Federal Highway Administration, which is funded by the federal highway trust fund. The Veterans Health Administration is also handled on a two-year budget cycle.)

Q: How will employees be notified whether they have been designated to be handling "excepted" or "non-excepted" functions?

Answer: Each Agency will communicate with its employees whether they’re “essential” or “non-essential.”

Q: Are all employees who qualify as "emergency employees" for the purpose of weather emergencies considered “essential” during a shutdown?

Q: Can non-esential workers take previously-approved paid leave during a shutdown?

A. No. All paid leave during a shutdown furlough period must be canceled because the requirement to furlough supersedes leave rights. Paid leave creates a debt to the government that isn't authorized by law.

Q: Can essential personnel take previously-approved leave or be granted new requests for paid leave during a shutdown?

A. No. Essential personnel must be either doing their job or furloughed during any absence from work during a shutdown. If an excepted employee refuses to report for work after being ordered to do so, he or she will be considered in an absence without leave (AWOL) and will be subject to any subsequent consequences.

Q: Will an employee continue to be covered under the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program during a shutdown furlough if the agency is unable to make its premium payments on time?

A. Yes, the employee’s FEHB coverage will continue even if an agency does not make the premium payments on time.

Q: What effect will a furlough have on other benefits that are paid for through payroll deductions?

Q: Are employees entitled to unemployment compensation while on furlough?

A. It is possible that furloughed employees may become eligible for unemployment compensation. But state unemployment compensation requirements differ. Some require a one-week waiting period before you apply. You should contact your state government directly and visit the Labor Department’s “Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees” information page.

Read the full OPM guidance here. Were all of your questions answered? If not, ask them in the comments section below.

Ed O'KeefeEd O’Keefe covered Congress and national politics for The Washington Post from 2008 to 2018. He has also covered federal agencies and federal employees in the Washington area, the war in Iraq, and the 2016 presidential campaigns of Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Follow